Black Country, New Road – Besties

Black Country, New Road are back with “Besties,” the first taste of their upcoming album Forever Howlong, out April 4 via Ninja Tune. This marks their first studio LP since Isaac Wood’s departure in 2022, and if this single is any indication, the band is embracing a new era with a more expansive and collaborative approach.

Georgia Ellery, known from Jockstrap, takes lead vocals on “Besties,” a baroque pop number laced with harpsichords. The band, constantly evolving, dials back their usual post-rock climaxes in favour of something more restrained and deeply affecting. It’s a song about friendship—a theme often overshadowed in songwriting by romance and heartbreak. Instead of grand, tortured statements, BCNR crafts something delicate, reflecting their reinvention.

Produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.), Forever Howlong is the first BCNR album where Ellery, Tyler Hyde, and May Kershaw all share lead vocal duties, giving the record a distinctive “spectrum of womanhood,” as Hyde puts it. The band, known for their technical prowess, even took up the humble recorder for some arrangements, proving that reinvention doesn’t always mean complexity—it sometimes means rediscovering simplicity.